Beleaguered Intel has approached Apple about securing an investment, Bloomberg News reports citing “people familiar with the matter.” Apple and Intel also have discussed how to work more closely together, said Bloomberg’s sources.
Ryan Gould and Liana Baker for Bloomberg News:
Such a deal would follow a $5 billion investment last week by Nvidia Corp., which plans to work with Intel on chips for personal computers and data centers. SoftBank Group Corp., the Japanese tech giant seeking to expand further in the US, announced a $2 billion investment in Intel last month.
Intel also has reached out to other companies about possible investments and partnerships, the people said.
A deal with Apple, a longtime Intel customer that switched to in-house processors in the past five years, would represent further validation of the chipmaker’s turnaround bid. Still, it’s unlikely that Apple would switch back to Intel processors in its devices. The iPhone maker’s most sophisticated chips are now produced by partner Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.
Intel Chief Executive Officer Lip-Bu Tan is attempting a comeback with the backing of the federal government. In an unconventional deal brokered by the Trump administration in August, the US acquired a roughly 10% stake in the chipmaker. Intel is seen as a critical piece of efforts to reinvigorate domestic production — a priority for the White House.
Even with financial support, Intel’s challenges remain daunting. The Santa Clara, California-based company has lost its long-held technological edge and ceded market share to rivals such as Advanced Micro Devices Inc. Moreover, Intel has struggled to capitalize on booming sales of artificial intelligence gear — a specialty of Nvidia.
Once the dominant chipmaker, Intel now has a fraction of Nvidia’s sales and market capitalization. It also has laid off workers and delayed factory expansion plans to cope with its deteriorating finances.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple’s going to start making hotplates?
When Intel CEO Paul Otellini passed on Apple’s iPhone: That decision has to be close to the top of the list of Biggest Business Mistakes in History. – MacDailyNews, May 17, 2013
[S]ome companies are too far gone and are just meant to die. Yes, we’re talking about Intel whose ex-CEO Paul Ottelini made a potentially fatal decision not to take up Steve Jobs on his offer to develop the microprocessor for the original iPhone. One big mistake like that can take down a company. Intel is an also-ran today. Propping up such companies… only prolongs the inevitable. – MacDailyNews, August 25, 2025
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Would be absolute good money chasing bad money. Apple helped put them into that very situation. They should now perform the Coup de grace and have them sold off to the stupidest bidder.
As Daring Fireball points out, “What exactly does Intel have to offer Apple?”
Raise your hand if you are willing to buy Intel stock today.
So, why should the Trump government waste YOUR tax dollars buying Intel stock?
Trump has done crazier things.
YOUR tax dollars were ALREADY WASTED by the autopen admin that was inserted into office via ballots harvested from nursing homes, filled out for a dementia patient and his DEI hire, and stuffed into unmonitored inner city swing state COVID boxes in 2020.
President Trump is merely taking a stake in the off-chance that Intel makes any profit from YOUR tax dollars that the previous “administration” already blew, bless your heart.
It is possible that Intel could get to 1.4 nm (14A) process with gate-all-around FETs before TSMC. If Apple were to invest then that could potentially accelerate that. A new fab these days costs 4-7 billion. An Apple investment could fund such a fab.
Besides, Apple was doing work with TSMC and Samsung with Apple now mostly focused on TSMC. While TSMC is moving forward with fabs in the U.S. the chip packaging is still done in Taiwan. Apple having a second fab and packaging capability within the 48 continuous U.S. states may be a hedge against what the PRC may do in the next half a dozen years. Xi’s publicly stated goal is to take over Taiwan even if the PRC has to do it by force.
Further, it would not surprise me if the current administration in Washington, D.C. decided to implement a 100% buy American clause into every contract the U.S. Government does for the DoD (oops, DOW) and Intelligence Community starting sometime in 2026. I don’t think it will happen, but if it did I would not be surprised. If that did happen, Apple would have to do much more of its buy and build within the U.S. in order to sell anything to those communities. Having a fab and chip packaging partner would definitely help Apple’s case.
thank you for this thoughtful comment, I was wondering what Apple might get out of such a deal.
The earliest Intel blunder I recall, was cutting off AMD’s license to fabricate clone processors (YEAH, I’m that old).
In prehistory; AMD was shipping 386 based processors, but selling them cheaper than Intel.
Once Intel ended the arrangement? It was sink or swim for AMD. AMD seemed pretty content stamping out processors until then, and I don’t believe they’d have put so much effort into competing with Intel if not for Intel’s decision.